Autumn Tears - The Hallowing. A lovely work of neoclassical ambience, but so sad.

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'Evil isn't the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as evil, maybe more so, and it's a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against stupid. That might actually make a difference.'~Harry Dresden

Many Energies, 3 Persons, 2 Natures, 1 God, 1 Church, 1 Baptism, and 1 Cup. The Son begotten only from the Father, the Spirit proceeding only from the Father, Each glorifying the Other. The Son sends the Spirit, the Spirit Reveals the Son, the Father is seen in the Son. The Spirit spoke through the Prophets and Fathers and does so even today.

'Evil isn't the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as evil, maybe more so, and it's a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against stupid. That might actually make a difference.'~Harry Dresden

I just finished listening to Kanye's MYBTF album after my friend's constant badgering and I cannot tell if he is the worst, most talentless artist to ever live, or the greatest, most unconventional mastermind to ever step behind the microphone. Definitely not what I was expecting.

I just finished listening to Kanye's MYBTF album after my friend's constant badgering and I cannot tell if he is the worst, most talentless artist to ever live, or the greatest, most unconventional mastermind to ever step behind the microphone. Definitely not what I was expecting.

Neither.

A producer who has had a few decent ideas and an ego large enough push forward a rather mediocre talent on the mic with just as much PR and business savvy to get the right people to promote and to write for him.

After watching a David Bowie retrospective last night, I dug out his Platinum Collection. Disc 3 is still my favourite.

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'Evil isn't the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as evil, maybe more so, and it's a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against stupid. That might actually make a difference.'~Harry Dresden

A producer who has had a few decent ideas and an ego large enough push forward a rather mediocre talent on the mic with just as much PR and business savvy to get the right people to promote and to write for him.

You are full of crap. I wonder if someone peed in your bowl of cereal?

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“There is your brother, naked, crying, and you stand there confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering.”

A producer who has had a few decent ideas and an ego large enough push forward a rather mediocre talent on the mic with just as much PR and business savvy to get the right people to promote and to write for him.

You are full of crap. I wonder if someone peed in your bowl of cereal?

Oh please write me anything of merit he has done lyrically. Then we'll take that and see if he had someone write it for him.

At best his lyrics are mediocre and that is what he has others write for him. Now that he has tons of money, it is quite hush who writes for him, but when he first got a few hits and gave no love and came out with that made up image of himself, more than a few guys were willing to dish on him.

Decent party albums. That's it.

His production is OK and was able to come up with three-four ideas which he and everyone else beat to death.

I mean, he is Jay-Z's kid. Jay-Z has a certain natural flow, but is pretty much a joke like most of those who work for him.

On a somewhat related note, did Big Pun and Eminem sort of run the whole multisyllabic rhyming thing into the ground so much now that it's no longer impressive and cool but a cheap novelty that any 13 year old kid can do?

On a somewhat related note, did Big Pun and Eminem sort of run the whole multisyllabic rhyming thing into the ground so much now that it's no longer impressive and cool but a cheap novelty that any 13 year old kid can do?

If they do it well, it's still great.

And EM >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Big Pun

But yeah, its rare when someone comes along and changes rhyme scheme. Production, easy. Content, easy.

Flow rarely is altered so authoritatively.

James go listen to everything Kool Keith did. At 50 he is still more relavant than nearly anything out there.

It's all about sin. The wretches that call themselves human may have, in an unguarded moment, discovered love of neighbors; perhaps some eccentric declared war on waste and blood-spilling. Poor defenses for holding sin under the thumb. Poor little human thumb.

Seven deadly sins? There are as many sins as there are people. They overflow all over each other. We're sinful because we're human. Think about the hours per day you spend on sacrifice, generosity, and forgiveness - then shudder. A second here or there, maybe. In the olden days, sure, they had just the seven sins. That's why we call it the olden days. Progress hadn't been discovered yet. So those seven could all still really be deadly sins; Lust, Wrath, Gluttony, Vanity, Jealousy, Greed, and Sloth.

But we sure know how to rationalize those antique sins, don't we? Gluttony? Can't a skinnybones aim higher in the erotic meat-market? Greed? What about those fatcats above us? Or the guy next door? Vanity? Come on, I'm just trying to look a bit youthful. Wrath? Anger? What, can't you sometimes just beat a guy up? That is the eighth deadly sin. As if the first seven weren't enough. And this is the ninth deadly sin; that we are just so content with our eight deadly sins.

Hieronymus Bosch had just the seven when he painted his panel 'The Seven Deadly Sins' and 'The Four Last Things'. We're talking about the end of the 15th, beginning of the 16th century. The panel hung in the bedroom of the most powerful man in the world - at the time, Philip II, in the Escorial, so that the king could gaze day and night at his weaknesses. You don't even see our minister-president doing that. The most powerful men in the world have not changed, but their mirrors have.

Hieronymus Bosch was famous as the greatest creator of devils and hell-monsters. He knew the deepest crypts. With a baleful eye, he saw the temptations that flit around people's heads. None of this it'll-be-fine-we're-all-little-gods-here stuff with him. Horrible diseases haunted mankind then. Insecurity was rife. The social order tottered on the brink. Dancing on the rim of the volcano. Nothing we have to worry about nowadays, thank God! Death, The Last Judgment, Heaven and Hell frame the deadly sins. It's Heaven or Hell. Only Death has a future. In the middle of the revolving wheel is the all-seeing eye. No sin goes unnoticed.

A producer who has had a few decent ideas and an ego large enough push forward a rather mediocre talent on the mic with just as much PR and business savvy to get the right people to promote and to write for him.

You are full of crap. I wonder if someone peed in your bowl of cereal?

Oh please write me anything of merit he has done lyrically. Then we'll take that and see if he had someone write it for him.

At best his lyrics are mediocre and that is what he has others write for him. Now that he has tons of money, it is quite hush who writes for him, but when he first got a few hits and gave no love and came out with that made up image of himself, more than a few guys were willing to dish on him.

Decent party albums. That's it.

His production is OK and was able to come up with three-four ideas which he and everyone else beat to death.

I mean, he is Jay-Z's kid. Jay-Z has a certain natural flow, but is pretty much a joke like most of those who work for him.

Biggie would be turning in his grave if he had room in his casket.

Well, there's his thrilling analyses of class, materialism, and money in the 21st century in such songs as "All Falls Down" and "Gold Digger," two of many many examples of quality lyrics in his repertoire.

orthonorm, do you have a source or evidence that West doesn't write his own lyrics or uses a ghost writer?

This is news to me.

Writing credits for my two examples are West and the authors of the songs he samples in each.

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“There is your brother, naked, crying, and you stand there confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering.”

Everytime I listen to Marshal Mathers LP, I swear it's like you are the one rapping. Like if it's your own autobiography. It makes me laugh even harder at a lot of the tracks because of how closer you resemble him.

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“There is your brother, naked, crying, and you stand there confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering.”

Everytime I listen to Marshal Mathers LP, I swear it's like you are the one rapping. Like if it's your own autobiography. It makes me laugh even harder at a lot of the tracks because of how closer you resemble him.

Imagine my life when he got popular.

I looked even more like him and the black guys I knew always thought I was crazy for dissing on my mother. And you can imagine how colorful I might have been.

First time black folks heard and saw him . . . I had to immediately change my hair and start liking my mother.

Man that beat on "Represent" is just amazing. Of course Pete Rock's beat on The World is Yours is the ****

It's a shame when rappers come out on top with their debut and everything else they do is measured by it. He effectively ended his career, much akin to DJ Shadow (which he knew himself, hence the "Endtroducing.." title)

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“There is your brother, naked, crying, and you stand there confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering.”

I don't know, but I've never liked DJ Shadow. I've never been able to listen to any of his albums all the way through. He's overrated; there's nothing to his albums, like when you're the last one to get to the donut box and there's just a little bit of frosting left.

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My only weakness is, well, never mind

He said he had a horrible houseI looked in it and learnt to shut my mouth

Man that beat on "Represent" is just amazing. Of course Pete Rock's beat on The World is Yours is the ****

It's a shame when rappers come out on top with their debut and everything else they do is measured by it. He effectively ended his career, much akin to DJ Shadow (which he knew himself, hence the "Endtroducing.." title)

Am I the only one who appreciated It Was Written more than Illmatic? I like the production better and the mafioso style.

Em has better content, humor and punchlines, but I don't really care too much for his flow. I like Pun because of how rapid and effortless his flow sounded, whereas Em's can occassionally sound "forced" or unnatural in my opinion. Plus, Pun was slightly better with the rhyme schemes. To this day, I've never found a rap line as technically advanced as dead in the middle of little Italy/little did we/know that we riddled two middle men/who didn't do diddily

Then again, in Em's defense, I've never heard another rapper tell a story as good as Em did on Stan. As far as I know, Em is the only rapper to ever use foreshadowing in his storytelling.

Everytime I listen to Marshal Mathers LP, I swear it's like you are the one rapping. Like if it's your own autobiography. It makes me laugh even harder at a lot of the tracks because of how closer you resemble him.

I think Relapse his best album, contrary to popular opinion. I appreciate the dark humor and narratives on it. Those accents were horrible though.

I don't know, but I've never liked DJ Shadow. I've never been able to listen to any of his albums all the way through. He's overrated; there's nothing to his albums, like when you're the last one to get to the donut box and there's just a little bit of frosting left.

Screeeeeeech, hold up.

Endtroducing is a bona fide classic. It is the greatest produced hip hop album ever, period. It should be listened to from front to back, there is such a unity with those songs.

It is one of the few albums that clicked instantly for me. Like it was so obvious how great the album was.

How DJ Shadow resurrected these forgotten artists dwelling in the basement of a record shop, breathing new life into them and making it work is astonishing.

I love Shadow's navel gazing throughout the album and those moments of pure transcendence.

Everything about it is just flawless.

Nobody will ever to reach those heights again, it was the record of a lifetime, but in that record it contains many lifetimes.

I know this is coming across as ultra pretentious, but I couldn't imagine life without that album. It totally changed me and completely changed my artistic direction forever.

There's Endtroducing and then everything else when it comes to hip-hop beats. And from a white dude nontheless.

Now I liked The Private Press a lot too, actually. And his work with UNKLE on Psyence Fiction.

There was a limited release album he did called Diminishing Returns, which was a 2 hour set on John Peel's radio program (or maybe it was just BBC), great stuff though.

Yeah his current work is garbage. Especially the Outsider. Terrible album, but I will still applaud him for trying something new even if it doesn't work.

His fanbase I think is pretty terrible in how the react to his new work, well of course he will never make another Endtroducing, and why should he? You are either a fan of the album or the artist, as he said.

But really I could talk forever about Endtroducing. How he samples brilliantly the drummer talking about how he is a teacher and a student of the drums, and makes a mockery of him, then blows him away with his own drumming. Or all of the other samples from Twin Peaks to Prince of Darkness that work so seamlessly.

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“There is your brother, naked, crying, and you stand there confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering.”

Am I the only one who appreciated It Was Written more than Illmatic? I like the production better and the mafioso style.

You're not the only one. Lupe Fiasco was strongly influenced by it as well, especially on his "The Cool". Too bad for him everything after that has been straight up pop garbage. He has so much promise, Lupe.

But Illmatic is still his best, although I have to disagree with it being the best hip hop album ever.

I myself haven't decided which one is though.

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“There is your brother, naked, crying, and you stand there confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering.”

The one thing that disappoints me about Em's albums is that other than a few collabos with Dr. Dre and some other crappy Midwestern artists from his label like Royce, he doesn't have many collaborations. Only recently has he started collaborating more, and it's not even with real rappers but pop stars like Drake and Lil Wayne.

The one thing that disappoints me about Em's albums is that other than a few collabos with Dr. Dre and some other crappy Midwestern artists from his label like Royce, he doesn't have many collaborations. Only recently has he started collaborating more, and it's not even with real rappers but pop stars like Drake and Lil Wayne.

Well Em is a pop star, so it doesn't surprise me at all he works with Rhianna (and what rapper hasn't by this point?) and others.

And really that Lil Wayne song was embarassing, because Em laid down such a great verse and Wayne's comes up so short.

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“There is your brother, naked, crying, and you stand there confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering.”

'Evil isn't the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as evil, maybe more so, and it's a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against stupid. That might actually make a difference.'~Harry Dresden